BEST WARM AND FUZZY FEELINGS: BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE
"Good luck, America," BSS frontman Kevin Drew told a late-night crowd at Stubb's, "I believe in you through all this shit, I really do." Tell you what, Mr. Drew, with an attitude like that -- and songs like your sextet played -- SXSW believes in you, too. On Thursday night, the Canadian collective gave a giddy crowd a taste of the songs from their forthcoming Forgiveness Rock Record, due May 4, and a few big gulps of all-around optimism. A cameo four-piece horn section beefed up one sprawling jam, and Metric's Emily Haines guested on the lovely "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl." -- KEVIN BRONSON

BEST GET UR FREAK ON: ESTELLE
The saucy U.K. vet sure knows how to throw a wicked nasty dance party. Between rapping about motherf**ckin' cheating boyfriends, grinding against a hunky dude from the audience, giving her female fans tips on straying without getting caught, and repeatedly warning everyone to get their hands up in the air cuz she's watching (and she was), Estelle also managed to sing a breathtaking soul cover of Smokey Robinson's "Get Ready," do a call-and-response version of her hit "American Boy," cover Coldplay, and bring Gym Class Heroes leader Travis McCoy onstage to rap. Whew! Girl packs a lot into 45 slim minutes. -- MARK BAUTZ

Emily Haines / Photo: Matt Kiser
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Nicole Atkins / Photo: Kyle Dean Reinford
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BEST FLANNEL-CLAD CROWD-PLEASERS: BAND OF HORSES
From the moment Ben Bridwell and bandmates hit the first notes of the echoing, hypnotic "Is There a Ghost," the South Carolina stars had the capacity crowd at Stubb's in the pocket of their flannel shirts. Even between songs Bridwell was nothing less than buoyant, joking of his trip to Austin, "They gotta start abbreviating South by Southwest to just By Southwest." Meanwhile, the band's 45 minutes of lightly psychedelic Southern-fried roots-rock -- highlighted by a grand singalong on "The Great Salt Lake" -- included three songs from their forthcoming album Infinite Arms, out May 18, including a scorching finisher filled out with some rapturous guitar solos. -- KB

BEST FEMME FATALE: NICOLE ATKINS
Currently working on the full-length follow-up to 2007's Neptune City, Nicole Atkins' sexy early evening set at La Zona Rosa had me checking for the album's release date (there isn't one yet -- dammit) as tough and twangy tearjerkers like the new "Civil War" mixed moody keyb-and-guitar interplay with dusky vocals. Every lovesick song Atkins sang (with a special nod to the languidly rocking, cheekily titled "Oh Canada") made it sound as if she'd spent roughly equal time breaking hearts and being burned. The noirish music almost made me want to go order a Scotch on the rocks and call an old girlfriend just to tell her a lie about love. Almost. -- DAVID MARCHESE

BEST NOT SO VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER: MIDLAKE
The Courage of Others, the most recent album from Denton, Texas' Midlake, is a cryptic collection of songs that sound as if designed to accompany druids dancing the quadrille -- it's also a bit of a slog. But live, when the drums hit heavy, the guitars crackle, and the bass rattles in your chest, the eight-piece band becomes an altogether woollier and more impressive beast. (And they still hit all their intricate, spooky harmonies with uncanny accuracy.) Midlake would absolutely kill at Stonehenge. Someone make it happen. -- DM

BEST BID AT THE BIG TIME: POMEGRANATES
Few feelings are as awesome as seeing a band you like live for the first time, and leaving liking 'em even more. Such was the case with this Cincinnati, OH, quartet, who've refined their sound since first popping on SPIN's radar in 2008. They've added a glossy polish to their art-pop and punk with reverb-y, anthemic yet meandering guitar lines that'd raise the eyebrows of both Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock and Coldplay's Chris Martin. On their set-closer, "Cakin," a demo for their next album, thrift store boys Joey Cook and Isaac Karns -- who split guitar and keyboard duties -- traded vocals, Cook's a low mutter and Karns' a high-pitched squawk, and created the kind of electrifying melodic charge that might be enough to push this band out of obscurity. -- WILLIAM GOODMAN

BEST DRESSED: A CLASSIC EDUCATON
While these Italians don't hail from the boutique-clogged streets of Milan, they certainly know how to fill out a suit. Jammed into the front window of 6th Street gin mill Friends, the sextet looked far classier than the club's regular clientele -- flat-screen TVs on the walls cycled through photos of buxom beauties in low-cut tops -- and had chops to match. The tightly wound, mandolin-led "What My Life Could Have Been" closed the set with panache, a spazzy college rock romp (think SXSW 2009 breakout band Pains of Being Pure at Heart) adorned with Old World orchestral touches. -- PETER GASTON 

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BEST UNDERCARD DISCOVERY: RADAR BROS.
SXSW so often seems about foaming at the mouth over the next big thing that the subtleties of an artist's career arc can get swallowed faster than a dollar shot. It'd be optimistic to think that many among the She & Him faithful at the Merge Records showcase had more than a passing knowledge of Radar Bros., the L.A. quintet whose sixth album, The Illustrated Garden, comes out next week. At 42, songwriter Jim Putnam, now surrounded by a young new cast of bandmates, may look like your eccentric uncle, but he crafts pop songs with the childlike wonderment of someone half his age. It took some doing, but his captive audience was eventually similarly smitten. -- KB

BEST OUT OF THE SHADOWS SET: THE CANDLES
Josh Lattanzi has done well for himself as a sideman, acting as hotshot guitarist for folks like the Lemonheads, Ben Kweller, and Albert Hammond Jr. But if his sparkling, carefully laidback performance fronting New York City folk-rockers the Candles was any indication, he might do even better in the spotlight. Singing sweet melodies in three-part harmony over ambling rhythms and laconic guitar, Lattanzi and his band crafted a sound heavily indebted to the golden charms of '70s singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Harvest-era Neil Young. It's a vibe we've heard resurrected before, but when executed with Lattanzi's emotional precision and sure sense of craft it still holds the power to be as moving as watching the sun set over Topanga Canyon. -- DM

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BEST ROCK'N'ROLL REVIVAL: THE JIM JONES REVUE
These high energy Londoners put on a show that's one part history of rock from Little Richard to the Ramones and one part fire-and-brimstone sermon. They are so tight and loud, so insistent on their retro sound, and so sharp in their dandy outfits, that it almost reads like parody. Which it is -- I think. Frontman Jim Jones mugs for the crowd, gets down on his knees and wails, then pushes to the edge of the stage as if possessed. Luckily, his evangelism has found a faithful flock. Even Patti Smith's guitarist Lenny Kaye, watching from the tiny club's bar, seemed transported. -- MB

BEST RETURNING INDIE VETS: QUASI
It's not every day a group of indie rock's most lauded vets play a dusty parking lot for free, which made Quasi's slot at the Kill Rock Stars showcase even more awesome. Formed in '93, members of the Portland, Oregon, trio are friends and ex-bandmates of Elliot Smith and have played in Heatmister, Sleater-Kinney, and Stephen Malkmus's the Jicks. They brought their melodic, high energy guitar rock -- including "Repulsion" and others from their eighth album American Gong, out last month -- to Cheer Up Charlie's, SXSWs 6th Street DIY home base. A mix of middle-aged hipsters and underage faces rocked out in bliss. -- JENN PELLY

BEST BREVITY: PEASANT
For many bands, SXSW is a test of logistical efficiency: Can they set up, quickly line check, and play a quality set within the space of a slim timeslot? For Pennsylvania-based solo performer Peasant, a.k.a. Damien DeRose, who performs simply with his tearjerking soprano and an acoustic guitar, there was no hurry whatsoever. "Do I have time for two more songs?" he asked the sound man. "You've got 30 more minutes," the sound man replied. DeRose considered the situation for a moment, then addressed the crowd: "No, it's okay. Just two more. It's what I planned for." And that was just fine. He cooed a stirring, heart-melting song called "We're Good," and proved that quality triumphs over quantity, even at SXSW. -- PG

NOT BEST, NOT WORST -- MOST MIDDLE-OF-THE-ROAD SET: THE MOONDOGGIES
This Seattle roots-rock quartet ride the line between loping Southern and the Fleet Foxes' nouveau, harmony-rich folk. Unfortunately, they also blur another boundary: the one between bland and boring and comfy and familiar. Their gritty guitar lines, straight drum beats, and gothic electric Rhodes piano parts would be great background music for a camping trip but there's absolutely nothing exceptional about them. They don't demand anything of the listener and, in turn, get nothing in return. At least not from me. -- WG

BEST USE OF NON-HUMAN BANDMATES: DAN BLACK
The London-bred, Paris-based electropop artist Dan Black is making waves by having broken through to rock radio with his single "Symphonies," which appropriates Jack Nitzsche's sweeping theme to the 1984 movie "Starman." At the SXSW Throwdown day party, Black delivered something in the way of a disco afternoon, performing with a bassist, guitarist, and a pair of glowing touchscreens he uses to control his samplers. Not only do the controllers look sci-fi cool, they make for great bandmates. "I never have to worry about them bringing groupies to the back of the bus," admitted Black from the stage. -- KB

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BEST HIDDEN SHOW:
Take Chelsea Girl-era Nico and inject equal doses of Bjork's oddball energy and late downtown New York icon Arthur Russell's experimental pop and you get Brooklyn quintet Twin Sister -- tiny, tattoo-covered frontgirl Andrea Estella, whose dreamy pipes lead four dudes jamming on guitars, bass, and keys. Their hazy, alluring "I Want A House" -- a recent blogosphere hit -- sounded particularly appropriate at a sunny (and unofficial SXSW) set in the yard of an East Austin house; the fuzzy ode to domesticity offered a reprieve from the chaos on 6th street, while doubling as a testament to the show's home-y locale. -- JP

BEST AFTER HOUSE SHOW: THEE OH SEES' BRIDGE GIG
Despite a steady stream of Tweeted "secret show" confirmations and cancellations, around 100 hopeful fans headed to the Lamar Boulevard Bridge at 2:30 A.M. for a mind-blowingly high energy set from San Francisco outfit Thee Oh Sees. Fans huddled around the band, crowd-surfing and thrashing, shaking the bridge as the three-piece blew through their frenetic repertoire of garage rock and noise pop. The backdrop to the late-night spectacle -- which also included a set from New Jersey garage punks Home Blitz -- was the glowing downtown Austin skyline. Bliss. -- JP

Avi Buffalo / Photo: Kathryn Yu
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The xx / Photo: Kathryn Yu
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She & Him / Photo: Misha Vladimirskiy
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BEST WUNDERKIND GUITARIST: AVI BUFFALO
His name is Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg, and at 19 he plays as if he's been struck by a lightning bolt launched by a great unknown blues guitarist from decades past. Three-quarters of his Long Beach, Calif., quartet Avi Buffalo are still teenagers, but they were snapped up last year by Sub Pop, which will release their self-titled debut on April 27. At two shows on Thursday, Zahner-Isenberg wielded his falsetto and his axe to fantastic effect -- tender and painterly one minute and fast and furious the next, like on the hurricane that closes "Remember Last Time." -- KB

BEST SPAZZOUTS: CYMBALS EAT GUITARS
It's quite possible that Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D'Agostino will someday write the hyper-emotional pitching-and-yawing spastic indie guitar jam that renders all others unnecessary. There's enough power in the feedbacking crescendos and coarsely charming melodies of songs like ". . . And the Hazy Sea" to make one hopeful, anyway. Right now, as the band's sometimes thrilling, sometimes painful set showed, the Staten Islanders spend the softer parts of their songs like they're bracing for a punch. When they learn better how to disguise the ones they're about to throw -- watch out. -- DM

WORST SENSE OF THE MOMENT: THE xx
The hipster nation's favorite lowercase minimalists (sorry, jj) might as well be wax figures onstage. Their purposefully undercooked hybrid of electro, pop, and soul relies on slow-building grooves and sparse beats, demanding that the listener fill in the blanks -- which meant that the Londoners' post-midnight set asked a lot of the audience at the Mohawk. Were the natives getting restless? Possibly. Would a light show have helped? Probably. Did I want to shout "giddyup?" You bet. -- KB

WORST CROWD: THE BLABBERMOUTHS AT THE OLOF ARNALDS SHOW
A bunch of folks sat cross-legged on the floor in silent wonder while listening to Iceland's Olof Arnalds play a hushed set of gorgeous folk in the opulent Victorian Room at the Driskill Hotel. But given that Arnalds, accompanied by the gentle sounds of her own warm fingerpicking and that of a second guitarist, sings like she's telling secrets, the few dozen people who stood by the bar yakking about "hydration" were loud enough to spoil the vibe. Annoying ambience aside, Arnalds delivered a subtly stirring set, her high, pure voice unwrapping gnomic melodies over drifting acoustic settings. -- DM

WORST ON-STAGE ENERGY: SHE & HIM
"Is this our old setlist?" Zooey Deschanel asked collaborator M. Ward near the end of She & Him's gig at the Merge Records showcase at the Cedar Street Courtyard. That was one of several discomfiting moments in a performance that could only be described as rote, despite a crack band that included the luminescent Chapin Sisters on backup vocals. Photographer control seemed to be a distracting concern (the band requested no photos be taken -- fat chance). It ultimately didn't matter, as the duo's lackadaisical folk-pop provided no Polaroid moments. -- KB

IN BRIEF:
Twitter was in a titter over news that Bill Murray was in town, as starstruck SXSWers traded sightings of the sad-eyed comedian. -- D.M.

Early arrivals rewarded: The special guest from "ShutUp, AK," billed in the early slot at the Merge Records showcase at Cedar Stret Courtyard was none other than Superchunk, who did a rousing 20 minutes. -- KB

Even if you're a journo, it's easy to get caught up in the SXSW spirit. After Miles Kurosky asked for volunteers from the crowd to join him onstage to help sing a Beulah song, Jeff Miller, the editor of Thrillist Los Angeles, found himself onstage providing vocals on "Popular Mechanics." -- KB

U.K. quartet Banjo Or Freakout has to the band most unlike its name; there's no banjoing in its fuzzy, ambient pop, and not a lot of freaking out either. -- K.B.

Maybe he was calling mom or reconciling with his former Panic! at the Disco bandmates, but Young Veins ringleader Ryan Ross sat on a 6th street curb in his Beatle boots, drainpipe jeans, and white Oxford button up, surrounded by drunkards, jabbering on his cell and sending texts for well over an hour. -- WG 

T-shirt of the day: "Kiss Me. No, really." -- KB

BEST CONTACT HIGH: NAS & DAMIAN MARLEY
"Who here likes to smoke weed?" asked Nas as he patrolled the cramped stage at Emo's. The answer: pretty much everyone. And while the smoke might have been thick as the Queensbridge rapper and reggae crossover star rattled through a medley of each other's big hits and teasers from their perpetually delayed collaborative album, Distant Relatives (finally due May 18), their performance was sharp and on-point. Nas dominated with a faithful rendering of "Made You Look," off his 2002 album, God's Son, with a retro-feeling sample of Onyx's 1993 single "Slam" tossed in for good measure, while Marley -- backed by only a DJ and hand drums -- revisited his father's classic, "One Love."

But the stripped down set best suited Nas' "One Mic," which he blasted through backed only by hand drums played by renowned percussionist Leon Mobley. Amidst all the heavy metal and indie rock, it was a striking reminder of just how powerful hip-hop can be, especially when wielded by a master craftsman like Nasir Jones. -- PETER GASTON

BEST STAGE DIVE: HIGH ON FIRE
"You want some fuckin' metal?" Mike Pike, frontman for Oakland, CA, trio High on Fire, asked a packed crowd that included an uncanny number of towering, Hell's Angel-style dudes with shaved heads and skull tattoos. Clearly, it was a rhetorical question. But the award for rocking the hardest goes to a waifish model, who leapt onto a stack of amplifiers onstage, threw the devils horns and headbanged, then slipped, fell five feet down into the pit, and crowd-surfed over a clawing mess of sweaty bodies, screaming, Fuck yeahhhhhhh!. – WILLIAM GOODMAN

Kitten / Photo: Eric Nowels
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Strange Boys / Photo: Matt Kiser
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French Resistance / Photo Kyle Dean Reinford
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MOST PROMISING 15 YEAR OLD: KITTEN
Sometimes the buzz around a new band with a teen singer is the hype of novelty -- and sometimes it's something more. Los Angeles' Kitten, fronted by 15-year-old Chloe Chaidez, put on a genuinely exciting show of darkly-inflected pop at the tiny venue Submerged. Chaidez, looking like a cross between pouty Divinyls' chanteuse Christina Amphlett and your favorite dorky cousin, has a raw power and believability as a performer. You can't quite take your eyes off her for fear of missing something, and her vocal style, while unpolished, is unpretentious and affecting. When her band got cranking, especially drummer Max Kuehn, I felt an honest chill of discovery. Kitten plans to drop an EP soon and is being scouted by the majors. The band's promise is undeniable. Honing their talent without homogenizing their rough originality will take finesse and patience, and could be well worth the effort. -- Mark Bautz

BAND MOST IN NEED OF A MOVIE CAMEO: CODEINE VELVET CLUB
Attention Quentin Tarantino: Codeine Velvet Club should be in your next movie. The Glasgow, Scotland, offshoot of the Fratellis' leader Jon Lawler would fit perfectly in the background of any party scene you could imagine, pumping out their alternately spooky and boldly theatrical tunes. And when the camera finally finds them for their close-up, Lawler's flowing Jack-White-like curls and his lively female co-singer's crisp tartan mini and pinned-back sophisto-'do are more than movie ready. In short, these guys look great and their music wins you over. Just when you think they're bit players in someone else's film, you discover they've been the real stars all along. -- M.B.

BEST SOLO FACE: PRIESTESS
Overzealous guitarists? Hardly. This esteemed award goes to the Montreal metal band's drummer Vince Nudo, whose face worked overtime during the quartet's set at the Mohawk. As Nudo laid anchor to the thrashing epics off their SPIN-praised new album, Prior to the Fire, his mug had a new action and shape for each drum roll – and there were a lot of drum rolls. He chewed, grinded and glinted his teeth, smiled, spit, frowned, curled his lips, grunted, and sometimes just sang along. Occasionally he reeled it in for frontman Mikey Heppner and lead axeman Dan Watchorn to trade solos. But despite the deft guitar action, it was clear who was the show's star. -- WG

BEST UP-AND-COMING BAND: THE STRANGE BOYS
Imagine Pete Doherty's Babyshambles playing a set of Black Lips covers and you get the Strange Boys, an Austin, TX, quintet -- drums, bass, two guitars, and a frizzly-haired girl on saxophone -- who kick out a charmingly ragged mix of swinging R&B, Nuggets-era garage rock, and weirdo roadhouse-blues. Sullen-eyed ringleader Ryan Sambol sang in a slurry talk-mumble as the band banged out the tinny-sounding tunes from their latest album, Be Brave. The Strange Boys are putting a strange new twist on garage rock – and I'll be standing front-and-center at their next show. -- WG.

BEST PIXIE-ISH PIXIE CHICK: THE HAPPY HOLLOWS
Sarah Negahdari looks like the girl who busted the curve in your high school algebra class, and then squeakily apologized for it, but put a guitar in the Happy Hollows frontwoman's hands and she shreds. The L.A. trio's Autumn Tone Records showcase was all shouts, smiles, yelps and guitar licks, capped by her finger-tapping freakout on the song "Lieutenant," which sounds like something off Surfer Rosa taken to a thrash-metal hoedown. Remember the very first time you heard the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Yeah.

 -- KEVIN BRONSON

BEST TAKEDOWN (S): EVERYBODY WAS IN THE FRENCH RESISTANCE… NOW
Eddie Argos, whose hilariously wry narratives put U.K. quintet Art Brut on the map, played his first proper U.S. show with his side project sporting a hilariously unruly name, Everybody Was in the French Resistance … Now. All the songs on the band's debut Fixing the Charts are rapier responses to famous tunes -- it's rather dance pop-meets-beat poet, really. The likes of Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Elastica and Avril Lavigne get smacked down, but the song from which the band name is derived, "Creeq Allies," didn't go over so well on an overseas tour. "In Europe, when you open with a song about Nazis, you get different reactions." Argos said. "Of course, when we were in Switzerland, we sang 'Everybody was in the French Resistance … except you people.' That didn't go down too well." -- KB

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BEST GROWTH SPURT: THE MORNING BENDERS

The Morning Benders' sophomore album Big Echo has earned some deserving accolades, but the Benders seem bent on a total sonic makeover. Gone from the San Francisco quartet's setlist at Emo's was any trace of the catchy, '60s-inspired juvenilia of 2008's Talking Through Tin Cans, replaced by Big Echo's intricate arrangements and introspective material. Fresh-faced frontman Christopher Chu seems to have gone from girl-hunting to soul-searching in one album, sounding all wary and wizened at the ripe old age of 24. 
-- KB

BEST APHRODISIAC FOR FRAT BOYS: ASTEROIDS GALAXY CLUB
With St. Patrick's Day in full effect, and many green-clad lads and ladies looking for some action, the brassy sounds from this Danish band -- best known for "Around the Bend," used in a 2008 iPod touch campaign -- surely outclassed whatever Auto-Tuned drivel was blasting in Austin's non-SXSW clubs. That is, if they could take their eyes off frontwoman Mette Lindberg, who poured her slender, sexy, blonde-topped form into a pink minidress, a la pre-drugs Sharon Stone in Casino. The best moment of their set came from a similar era, when AGC slipped into a bombastic yet tasteful cover of Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues." -- PG

Findlay Brown / Photo: Kyle Dean Reinford
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Chris Shiftlett / Photo: Kyle Dean Reinford
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BEST SOUTHERN TROUBADOUR: DYLAN LEBLANC
Backed onstage by a trio of seasoned studio vets, this 19-year-old Louisiana boy sang with a world-weary tone that belied his young age. Blending a little of Jim James' reverb-drenched croon with Neil Young's raspy, high registers, recent Rough Trade signing LeBlanc sings with an easygoing assuredness, and while his songcraft and guitar work aren't worth marveling just yet, there's something mystifying enough about songs like "If the Creek Don't Rise" to keep us wanting and waiting for more. -- PG

BEST ESCAPE FROM THE INDIE ROCK MARATHON: FLYING LOTUS
On the other end of 6th street, off the grid of SXSW primetime, where souped up crotch-rockets and sports cars, girls in miniskirts, and Frat boys lined the streets, Austin, TX, rocked to a decidedly different beat: a deep frenetic one, courtesy of Los Angeles' Steven Ellison, a.k.a. Flying Lotus, a mad scientist DJ, producer, and laptop musician, who fuses hip-hop, dub, and rave sounds into a genre all his won. Multi-tasking by spinning vinyl and ad-libbing on a drum machine, the 26-year-old re-imagined tracks from his upcoming album, Cosmogramma, as flashing visuals -- body parts and black-and-white shapes -- projected on a massive screen. "Damn, I could do this all night," he said. The music paused, the crowd danced, and Lotus pushed the drones, pulses, and laser noises into a dark, twisted, and all-new direction. Neon Indian's Alan Palomo approved, dancing with a lady friend on the floor. Check out Flying Lotus live this April, opening for his sometime collaborator Thom Yorke. -- WG

WORST CROWD: FINDLAY BROWN:
Sometimes people don't know a good thing when they see one. Maybe 1950s Brill Building pop isn't exactly the best soundtrack to slamming tequila shots, but the sparse crowd at this Brit crooner's set was simply… disinterested. One dude even chatted away on his cellphone no more than three-feet from the stage where the babyfaced Brown and his band -- keys, bass, guitar, and drums -- precisely recreated the vintage pop of their new album, Love Will Find You. It sounded great, albeit unabashedly derivative, but didn't stir the crowd, including Eddie Argos who fiddled with his cell the entire show. Finally, on "Teardrops Lost in the Rain," an elegant and simply gorgeous ballad with twinkling electric guitar leads, soft vocals, and melodic key rises, there was a sign of life: a couple slow dancing. -- WG

WORST IDEA EVER: CHRIS SHIFLETT
Only a handful of lead guitarists have launched convincing solo careers -- the Strokes' Albert Hammond Jr. and Blur's Graham Coxon, for example. But Foo Fighters axeman Chris Shifflet is not one of these people. "Let's play some grunge!" the 38-year-old said to the thin crowd at the Prague venue, before tuning his guitar to Drop D -- "That grunge sound" -- and strumming through a sappy rocker that sounded like a canned STP or Alice in Chains demo. His playing was top-notch, but his off-key vocals and wince-worthy lyrics -- "I took the same drugs as you" and later, "I'll watch the stars with you" -- were equally painful. Stick to your guns, Chris, and let Dave Grohl do the singing and songwriting. -- WG.

IN BRIEF:

Not only did Adrien Brody happen by the Miike Snow show at the Galaxy Room, but Broken Bells made the scene after playing their set at Stubb's. -- KB



Kim Fowley, the 70-year-old former manager of the Runaways, seems to be everywhere -- holding court -- clearly enjoying his reinvigorated legend as the dastardly manipulator in the forthcoming movie on the '70s girl group.

 -- KB.

Sign on the marquee of the Dirty Dog Saloon: "Shitty is not here."

 -- KB

Small tributes abounded after the news of Alex Chilton's death spread at SXSW -- Los Angeles quartet the Henry Clay People, the Pavement-meets-Petty rockers who just signed to TBD Records, stopped their set and asked everyone at Stubb's to raise a glass in Chilton's memory.

 -- KB

Were there really only 17 people at the Walkmen's noon set at the IFC Crossroads House? (Not so later, for their jam-packed performance featuring a brass band at Stubb's.)

 -- KB

Street-teamer: "Come inside and see this band -- it's St. Patrick's Day and they're from Glasgow."


 -- KB

British rockers Muse will make a special appearance at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, this Friday, March 19, playing the most intimate venue on their current arena tour.

The show, presented by MySpace Music, will be open to SXSW badge holders on a first-come, first-served basis, and will take place at Stubb's BBQ right after SPIN's annual SXSW bash, featuring Hole.

Canadian indie faves Metric will open.

Good news for fans who aren't in Austin: Video of Muse's set will be streamed on the band's MySpace page starting Sunday, March 21. Check MySpace Music for exact broadcast times.

It’s not a battle of the bands, per se, and you get to vote on the winner: Metric and Broken Social Scene have each chosen a cause they feel strongly about, and are competing in the Pepsi Refresh SXSW Challenge for $100,000 to “refresh” a community. Metric’s going for the Women’s Funding Network, whose efforts [...]

Levi’s® FADER Fort — Day 2 1:30 – 1:55 pm Yawn 2:15 – 2:40 pm Everything Everything 3:00 – 3:25 pm Best Coast 3:25 – 3:45 pm [...]